Griffin Speaks

“DON’T CALL GREG CALL 911!”

On March 19, 1998, my father, Dr. Melvin J. Griffin Sr. almost lost his life due to heart failure. Years of smoking unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes were finally about to catch up with him. He was in his late sixties and relatively healthy all his life. He would often tell people that he would live to be 150 years old.

Fortunately my father survived. He regained his health and decided to come out of retirement. At age 71 he works full time for the State of Alabama. He plans to retire from the State at the young age of 81.

My father has people falling out with laughter when he recounts the night that he almost died. He said that he fell out of bed choking for breath. He called out to my mom to call 911. She kept asking him to let her call Greg.

“Let me call Greg” she would say. He would say, “You call 911.” This went on for quite a while. My mother tells the story differently.

My mother and I waited in the Emergency Room at Humana Hospital for four hours while the nurses and physicians worked diligently to save his life. When my father was finally taken to a room on the cardiac floor we were allowed to visit him. As my mother and I passed through the double doors we met the cardiologist. He looked at my mother in her late sixties with snow white hair and asked her very seriously: Are you Dr. Griffin’s daughter? My mom looked at the doctor, smiled and jokingly said YES. I was afraid to see my father if he looked like he could be my mother’s father. Well we finally got an opportunity to see him. God had spared him. He was very fortunate. He quit smoking and regained his health and vigor. We are very grateful for the care he received at Humana.

Why would my mother, a woman who graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina with a perfect 4.0 average hesitate to call 911? Since moving to Montgomery in 1990 my mother has had more time to enjoy her favorite pass time of reading. She is well read and aware of the many mistakes made in Hospitals. Many of us are hesitant to go to the hospital unless it is absolutely necessary. My father had told us for so long that he was going to live to be 150 years old we began to believe him. We viewed him as being invincible. Surely he wouldn’t need to go to the hospital.

Approximately 98000 Americans die each year as a result of medical mistakes made while they are in the hospital. Patients are vulnerable to their illness and a flawed health-care system. Studies indicate that more deaths occur because of hospital mistakes than automobile accidents, breast cancer or aids. It is estimated that the cost of these mistakes could be as high as twenty -nine billion dollars.

A few nights ago I watched an interesting segment of Dateline. The segment was titled: “A LESSON FROM BRIAN” Brian Kolb was a seven year old boy that died as a result of a mistake made at Martin Memorial in Florida. He entered the hospital to have minor ear surgery. Martin Memorial uses a procedure during surgery that is commonly used throughout America. Many hospitals transfer drugs out of their labeled bottles into unmarked bowls. Often times the drugs are indistinguishable. In Brian Kolb’s case the drugs Adrenaline (a stimulant) and Lidocaine (an anesthetic) were mixed up. Brain died and the hospital admitted error. A confidential multi-million dollar settlement was reached between the parents and the hospital.

Before you need to enter a hospital, I suggest that you contact the hospital’s risk management department and ask them if they practice this potentially deadly procedure of using unmarked bowls. Ask them point blank, do you use open unlabeled bowls to hold drugs? If the answer is yes I suggest you find another hospital. The life you save may very well be your own.

Greg Griffin is a columnist for the historic Montgomery-tuskegee times. For an unedited copy of this article log on to www.greggriffin.com